Google announced it has added features to help you plan your trips, flights and hotel stays for your vacations or business trips. Google is showing new “tips” under the flight search results to show you ways to save money for that trip. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Google Analytics has announced four new features to better measure the customer journey. The new features are user-focused reporting, user explorer, audience reporting and conversion probability. [Source: Marketing Land]
Google has added more ways for businesses to target their known customers with AdWords campaigns. Google attempts to match phone number and mailing address information with user-provided data in Google accounts. [Source: Search Engine Land]
Facebook is piecing together the business side of WhatsApp in much the same way it did with Messenger. Now, Facebook is giving businesses a way to kick-start conversations with customers on WhatsApp. [Source: Marketing Land]
Facebook will begin testing a six-second pre-roll ads hub next year, the company announced on Thursday, confirming earlier reports. Facebook is also introducing new restrictions on when and which publishers and creators can insert mid-roll ads in their videos and changing how its algorithm decides which videos to prioritize in people’s News Feeds. [Source: Marketing Land]
Twitter has now officially announced the launch of ‘Threads’, a new, native option which will automatically link your tweets, enabling users to string together longer messages. [Source: Social Media Today]
Instagram has announced that users will now be able to follow specific hashtags on the platform, in addition to profiles, with posts using those tags appearing in your main feed. The new option expands the potential of Instagram as a discovery engine. [Source: Social Media Today]
Snapchat’s Lenses have largely been responsible for popularizing augmented reality. On Thursday, Snapchat launched Lens Studio, a desktop app for Mac and Windows that anyone can use to create augmented-reality Lenses that can be applied to photos and videos shared on Snapchat. [Source: Marketing Land]
A new survey suggests that marketers will continue to increase ad spend on mobile despite the expectation that a fairly significant percentage of that spend will go to fraud. The results showed that 69 percent of respondents believe that at least 20 percent of their in-app mobile ad spend is subject to fraud. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
Facebook has published an annual trends report, utilizing the same methodology as their monthly updates, and shining a light on the key subjects which have seen significant increases in mention volume over the past 12 months. The report includes findings across seven categories – Beauty & Fashion, Commerce, Culture, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Mind & Body, and Technology – with detailed insights for each. [Source: Social Media Today]
Expert Opinion:
- Drive genuine engagements through emotions
Consumers’ emotions have a strong impact on brand loyalty. Creating strong emotional connections with consumers can help brands in gaining loyal set of users for a long time. Also, humans have a natural tendency of wanting to be loyal and they can survive only in loyal groups, as suggested by learnings in humanities and biology. Brands can leverage on this very human need and get some loyal set of audiences for their brand.
In spite of knowing the importance of creating emotional engagements with the customers, we often see a disconnect between the executives and consumers on how well organisations make emotional connections with their audiences. As per Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute survey, 80% of executives say their brand understands the emotional needs of their users. However, only 15% consumers say that the brands put in efforts to emotionally bond with them.
Various factors foster loyalty amongst the users, with honesty and trust having the greatest influence. Other factors include price competitiveness, promotions, customer service, etc. Brands that work on engaging with the consumers emotionally and create a strong bond are sure to enjoy a plethora of benefits that these set of users provide. Emotionally engaged consumers tend to spend more, promote brands they are loyal to and enjoy giving back to a brand.
Brands can focus on the below aspects to engage emotionally with their consumers.
– Respect – to gain consumer respect and trust, brands need to go beyond usual transactions and develop relationships with their users by showing respect to their needs and concerns in a variety of ways like responding to queries in real time, using consumer feedback to improve their future experience with the brand, working on reducing the wait time for addressing their concerns, etc. If you, as a brand, will do what you say will do, it will promote honesty, trust and integrity.
– Reciprocate – create reciprocal relationships with the customers. Customers enjoy giving as much as receiving. Information shared by them should be used by the marketers. Also, a customer complaint should be acknowledged and responded upon promptly. When your customers complete milestones, thank them and appreciate their loyalty. This will build a two-way relationship with your customers, which they will appreciate, and which will thrive loyalty for a longer period.
– Recognise – it is important to know your customers well and understand their unique needs. Understanding them and what they care about, what they want, how they behave can help in creating meaningful experiences for them in the future.
– Reward – brands need to focus on creating experiences that can help them promote long-term relationship with their users. Provide timely rewards to the loyal customers. The rewards can be monetary, special offers and experiences or something that can make their transactions easier. Rewards are a great way to connect with your customers and gain their loyalty.
Along with devising ways to emotionally connect with the users, it is also essential to measure and optimize the relationship on a timely basis.
With the rising competition, it becomes crucial for brands to know their customers at a human level. They need to be aware about their behaviour, changing needs and desires. With this in mind, marketers can work on creating meaningful experiences that drive emotional engagement and help brands secure a sustainable and long-term loyalty from their users.
– Advit V Sahdev, Head of Marketing, Infibeam Inc
